KrimsonRogue @[email protected]
230K subscribers - no pronouns :c
Dedicated to promoting excellent books while mocking terribl
Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Iâve finally finished Iron Flame last week.
While not nearly as bad as it could have been, it took some degree of potential it did have and wasted it. The book has a rough start, picks up a little, then by the second half, goes on a downward spiral until the end. And just when it looks like it might at least land safely, it corkscrews and lands upside down.
There is praise to be had, but there are also critiques to be noted. An element of the story that Yarros didnât really consider is the use of logistics, specifically what supposedly happens when the protagonist isnât around. In a fully-fleshed story, the universe still has things happen, without the protagonistâs involvement. But at several points, certain reveals are made with good setup, but lousy payoff. Once you realize that certain events are impossible or improbable within the confines of time/space/the magic system, your immersion shatters.
The main thing I probably liked in Fourth Wing was the chemistry and budding romance between Violet and Xaden, clichĂ© as it was. Yes, it showed a ânot like other girlsâ protagonist getting together with the dark loner guy, except she was intellectual and actually had agency/drive, and he wasnât a stonehearted POS. But the romantic chemistry in this book feels like a skipping record because Violet canât trust Xaden since he didnât tell her his deep dark secret that heâs still aiding a rebellion against the Empire theyâre both sworn to protect. But she loves him. But she canât trust him. But she loves him. But she canât trust him. Repeat this cycle about 20 times, and you have Iron Flame.
And the worldbuilding is still a big issue. Iâm convinced that court martials donât exist in the world of Fourth Wing. Hell, if not for a character getting thrown in the brig in one scene, Iâd assume they didnât know what a prison system even was.
And I better save what I want to say about the side characters for the actual video. We have a bunch of extra secondary/tertiary characters that get dropped in unceremoniously with varying degrees of success. But most of them are failures for one reason or another.
As you can see, I do have a lot on my plate for this review, but thereâs still one element that I want to attempt. As you may recall from the last video, Violet has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), which really hampers her ability to perform in the military. I did kinda gloss over it in the last review, but this time, I want to zero in on what it is, what itâs like to live with it, and how ridiculous some of Violetâs accomplishments probably are. And thereâs only so much that I can really do with research, so I want to try something different.
I want to put a panel of people who have EDS and want to discuss it while talking about the events in the book.
This will be recorded, and if it goes well, will be used in the Iron Flame review. I already have a short list of questions put together, and Iâll try to arrange everything so that we can fit as many people who want to participate on the panel as possible. Weâll probably host this on Discord as that would be the easier/most accessible platform to use.
If anyone with EDS is interested in discussing this, or if you know anyone with EDS who might be interested in discussing this, please reach out to me on Twitter (@KrimsonRogue) or via email ([email protected]). Iâm hoping to get everything filmed within the next week, so maybe Sept 1st-2nd.
Questions can be provided ahead of time and this should take about 30-60 minutes to film. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to participate in the panel.
For everyone else, I hope to film early in September and get the finished review out in October.
-Krimson
1.8K - 68
We're nearing the end of the Nightbane video!
I'm very thankful that everyone has waited so patiently for this review. It's been a real challenge to get through, not just in coming up with jokes, but just trying to understand what the hell Aster was trying to do in the first place. Part of the difficulty was just analyzing her story elements without short circuiting my brain. While there are a lot of logical inconsistencies and unexplained actions the characters take, there are also plenty of contradictions between Nightbane and Lightlark, including full-on retcons. For example, did you know wielding is basically the same as bending from Avatar? Yeah, I didn't either, but apparently there are stances and hand gestures that go into wielding, an element I can't recall being prominantly mentioned in Lightlark. And that's a simple example.
Nightbane is an absolute waste of time, though I suspect you already knew that. It's full of vapid moments, all of which are meant to enchant readers with mystic images and wondrous, far-away kingdoms... until you realize that Aster doesn't describe anything. This world is so undefined that readers have to do all the imagining themselves. Several times in my video, I challenge the viewer to just picture what something is even supposed to look like, like this hidden cave the characters come across at one point. It's shallow enough to see a special macguffin from the mouth of the cave, but deep enough to fit a dozen hidden traps inside, but shallow enough that the dragon guarding the macguffin can wake up because of a nondescript sound from outside the cave, but deep enough that the sounds of the traps going off (to include boulders being heaved around) don't wake the dragon up while Isla was initially stumbling through the traps on her practice runs into the cave. Yes, several practice runs setting off several deadly traps. This book is very stupid.
By the end of the video, I was getting so frustrated from all the vacant descriptions, the plot-convenient new styles of magic, the retcons, the bumbling worldbuilding, and oh the filler! Don't get me started on the filler! Barely anything in this book is really necessary for anything in the series at large. 80% of this book is an empty void. Nothing matters! Scenes are rushed, characters are one-note, and the world might as well be a white void for all the definition it gets.
And yes, the video length got away from me again. I'll have a special announcement video that will give the full time in a few days (hopefully). For now, I'll just say that this video is longer than the Lightlark review. The only thing left to do (aside from completing the credits and thumbnail) is doing a final quality check of the full video. That will probably take me 2-3 days to get through. I want to cut any extraneous ranting I have just so I don't waste anyone's time. This video will be pure, distilled nonsense, just like you all deserve!
I was hoping to get the video out by this weekend, but between the final touches and life in general, I don't want to over-promise. I do think I can get it out by next weekend though, so I'm currently aiming for July 6th. Assuming no copyright issues or any tech issues, I should be able to stick to that.
Hopefully my next video won't take as long to produce, but again, huge thanks go out to everyone for waiting patiently and sticking with me while I work behind the scenes. It really means a lot and I really do have the best fans around!
-Krimson
2.4K - 190
Going live on the Salty Nerd Podcast to complain about writing and upcoming movies. Come check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnPL0...
122 - 74
At long last, after years of searching, I have finally found someone who can put up with my dumbass sense of humor.
So the Book Queen and I are officially married as of this weekend. We had a cute ceremony, complete with our officiant opening the event with the âMawwage is what bwings us togeva todayâ speech from Princess Bride.
However, this is me weâre talking, so books took a huge front seat. Instead of numbers, tables were marked by our favorite authors. (Crichton, Doyle, Rollins, Dan Brown, Dante, Douglas Adams, and we were seated at the George RR Martin table.)
All our guests even got a âblind date with a bookâ, with each table adorned with books wrapped in blank paper, save for a vague description on the front. I wrote the descriptions and just had fun being as weird as I could with every title I could.
Examples:
âBiologist misses his ride home and has to deal with the consequences.â
âRude guy with a drug problem sticks his nose in other peopleâs business.â
âSouthern gentleman complains about his dead boyfriend for several hours.â
(Answers: The Martian, Sherlock Holmes, Interview with a Vampire.)
Everything worked out in the end, with my wife wearing an incredible black dress, and trying (and failing) to run away with our cake. Iâve included a few basic photos taken by friends and family, but weâll have more official photos to share when we get them from the photographer.
Anyway, Iâm really happy that weâve finally tied the knot, but now itâs time to get back to work.
Iâve been slacking on the video updates lately (understandably, I hope), but I have been making good progress. Iâve finished reading âFourth Wingâ and Iâve filmed the review, with over 13 hours of total footage. So far, I have about an hour and a half of video done and Iâm maybe on chapter 10. Yes, this is gonna be another chonky review, in large part because Yarros insists in stuffing her chapters to the brim with all sorts of info.
To be clear, âFourth Wingâ does have lots of positives about it. This might be the best book Iâve reviewed for the Masochistic Tango series. However, when the author stumbles, she stumbles hard. The war college this is set in is so stupidly run that it might as well be a front for the enemy army to whittle down their opposition. Murder is just one of those things youâre expected to shrug off. Hell, I rant for 7 minutes on the murder rule because of how little logic there is in it.
It should be a fun video when itâs finally done.
Anyway, look forward to more of that, hopefully by the beginning of February.
Now if youâll excuse me, I need to fulfill my husbandly duties by loading the dishwasher incorrectly.
10K - 715
Like so many other times in life, you want to make sure you pick exactly right when getting a new pet.
My fiancĂ© (the Book Queen) and I have been talking about getting another cat for a few weeks now. I was adamant about getting a female cat since theyâre often calmer (in my experience at least). The Book Queen wanted a black cat as well (or âvoid kittyâ as she always puts it) because she likes the witchy vibe they give off (sheâs into witchcraft, just part of her charm).
Sheâs been searching for a void kitty to fill out our roster at home for some time, but was having surprising difficulty with it. We searched only through rescue centers, which did limit our results, but we felt it was for the best. Most of the void kitties we found were bonded pairs, or didnât mix well with dogs or other cats, or had some other issue that wouldnât make them a comfortable fit in our home.
Then, Book Queen found Eclipse.
Eclipse was a female void kitty that was used to cats and dogs and was a little nervous, but we figured we could nurture that out of her. Our dogs are very calm around cats now and Ash is too complacent to put up a fuss. She was being held at a shelter about 2 hours away in the middle of nowhere Virginia (not banjo-country, but not far from it). So the Book Queen and I discussed it, put in the paperwork, got approved for an adoption, and drove down last weekend to see her.
And what we met with wasnât what was advertised.
The shelter had left out some details, much to my annoyance. We met with one worker and when we asked to see Eclipse, and the workerâs face twisted in confusion.
Apparently Eclipse was a known problem within the shelter, since she was âvery anti-socialâ, which was a far cry from ânervousâ. Now one thing that always pisses me off is when Iâve felt like my time has been wasted, and this was a 5-hour round trip that ate up most of my day (2 hours down, 1 hour to meet cat/discuss adoption, 2 hours back). Fortunately, Book Queen is always cool when dealing with unexpected situations like this, so she asked if we could salvage the situation by meeting with other cats/kittens available.
The shelter had another 16(ish) cats we could meet with, and many of them seemed like they would make a good fit, but none fit the parameters we had set out for. Again, I was disappointed.
However, two kittens caught our attention.
âWrigleyâ and âChickletâ were a pair of 4-month old kittens that looked at us curiously when we stepped into the room. We requested to meet with them in the quiet room to see if we could bond at all. Wrigley was a black male cat, and Chicklet was a female tortoise-shell. By coincidence, they were brother and sister and were actually Eclipseâs kittens.
After sitting with them for a few, Chicklet curled up in my lap and was purring contently. Wrigley climbed my fiancĂ©âs shoulder and sat there like a parrot (pictures below). They were both tiny, soft and adorable.
But we had to decide, which one were we taking home?
I know I wanted Chicklet since she already seemed to be warming up to me, and I wanted a good lap cat, but Wrigley was adventurous and Book Queen really loved his personality. He would make a good witchy familiar.
So this led to the moment that many of you have probably already guessed at. I suggested we take them both.
We had only been looking for the one cat, but both these kittens were adorable, seemed to like us, and they needed a good home, which we could provide. So, we filled out the rest of the paperwork, got their medical documents, and drove home.
Weâve since renamed them, so Wrigley is now Umbra, and Chicklet is now Aurielle, or Auri for short. Admittedly, both are named after elements from my books.
Theyâve since met Konani, Tuck and Ash. The dogs warmed up to the idea of more cats immediately. Ash was a little taken aback at more cats in the house and did hiss a little at first, but has since calmed down over a few days. I guess as long as he still gets his food and doesnât have to share his boxes, heâll be fine.
And thatâs how we added two more kittens into our home. Theyâre busy exploring and playing, and they already have very particular personalities. Umbra goes ragdoll when you put him on his back. Book Queen already loves this about him and calls Umbra her little panther. Auri is a classic scaredy cat who has to be held very protectively when you first pick her up, but she does melt into your lap and purrs up a storm after a few seconds of security.
And the two of them play with the intensity of your average hurricane. More than once theyâve knocked books clean off the Book Throne. The two of them will be chaos when I can finally get them on camera, but Iâm sure youâll all love to see them.
If you want to see more pictures, follow @hafatam1 on Twitter, which is where weâll be posting most of the photos we take.
3.6K - 175
Had to make a tough call on my video for 'The Missus'.
There was a miscommunication regarding the sponsorship ad, and I'll need to reupload a correction. I'm gonna unlist the video and reupload it with the correction in place.
I know it's probably a big ask, but I'm gonna try to upload the revised version tomorrow. Even if you've already seen the video, it would mean a lot if you put it on in the background and let it play, just to help it in the algorithm.
3.8K - 224
Finished reading The Missus last night, and I hated it.
I'm amazed at how badly some people are able to mess up their books. Bad characters happen. Ugly interpretations of themes or ideas are to be expected. Some worldbuilding just doesn't make sense.
But how do you manage to write a 450-page book without a story?!
I once said that the prior book, The Mister, was 150 pages of story spread out over 500 pages.
The Missus is 5 pages of story spread out over 450. Everything is just, "And then this happened. And then this happened. And then this happened."
Conflicts are raised and resolved within pages of each other. There are no lasting consequences for anything that happens. The protagonists just keep hitting the easy button over and over and over!
And the "sensual sex scenes" are so limp that I could probably read them on air without losing monetization. This book is as arousing as a take-out menu!
Say what you will about the tedium of Twilight, but at least stuff happened occasionally!
Gonna try filming this weekend, then maybe it'll be a month or two before the video is released. We'll see how things go.
Go read something good.
-Krimson
4.7K - 231
I donât know how to open this, so Iâm going to be direct.
Last Thursday, I found Leia collapsed on the floor of the bathroom. She didnât seem hurt, until she tried to walk. Her back leg was completely limp and dragged when she tried to walk at all. And her eyes were milky, and she didnât seem to respond to visual stimuli.
She had suffered a stroke.
We took her to the vet, who ran some tests. Weâve been to the same vet twice more since then, always running more tests. And every test gave as many questions as answers.
Her list of symptoms belongs in an episode of House. She had blood clots, asthma (which caused a lobe in her lung to deflate), irregular blood results, and she wasnât eating or drinking properly. According to the vet, there doesnât seem to be any connected cause that she can find.
Her eyes are my biggest worry now. Normal eye pressure in cats in around 20 units (I donât know what theyâre called). Leiaâs eye pressure is at 70 units, which causes headaches and astigmatism, but because her eye pressure is so severe, itâs obstructing the corneas.
Leia is blind. And the vet doesnât think we can reverse it.
I hope you can understand that this has been causing a delay in video production. Iâve had Leia longer than Iâve had the channel, but if things get any worse, then November 9th will probably be the last video Leia ever appears in.
Weâre trying to stay optimistic, but thatâs getting harder and harder to do. Her vet is very professional, but also very confused. Iâll keep you guys posted on what happens next, but hug your pets while you can.
6K - 527
A fan reached out and told me about a writing contest for LGBT middle/high schoolers called the 'Queer Writers of America'. It's free to enter and the first prize winner gets $100.
The deadline to enter is May 10th.
Here's a link to the website:
sites.google.com/byramhills.net/queer-writers-of-aâŠ
2.7K - 387
Not even two full days. This is the fastest I've ever gotten a video to 100K views!
Thank you everyone for checking it out. This definitely makes all the work I put into this mess feel worth it!
4.1K - 183
Dedicated to promoting excellent books while mocking terrible writing, and reading everything in between.